Iâ€™m so happy Don is finally starting to turn his life around. Heâ€™s exercising, cutting way back on the booze and the women and actually trying to reflect on his life. Itâ€™s about time.

Betty behaves badly when she and Henry stumble upon Don and his date while in the city. Is Betty jealous that Don is trying to move on with his life? She shuts down for the night, turning to alcohol for comfort and Henry isnâ€™t pleased with her behavior. But she has a nice turn-around when Don shows up for his sonâ€™s birthday party. She seems to have called a truce and maybe she thinks itâ€™s good for Gene to spend some time with his father. Some of you may think Betty changed her tune because of Francineâ€™s warning but I think â€“ no, I hope â€“ Betty sees the value of having Don in their childrenâ€™s lives. Weâ€™ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, Peggy fires the freelance copywriter and Iâ€™m glad she did. He was more than disrespectful and itâ€™s clear he had a very low opinion of both Joan and Peggy (and women in general.) Itâ€™s hard to watch those scenes. I think I block out how bad it was for women in the workplace in the 1960s and 70s. They had to put up with a lot and ignore an enormous amount of bad behavior. And who are the men who did these things?Â Matt Longâ€™s Joey did a great job of making us uncomfortable. He even shocked me with his words to Joan. I’ve got fond memories of Matt Long from Jack and Bobby and Iâ€™m glad heâ€™s getting work and showing us a different side.

Joanâ€™s take on the whole situation was very interesting. I would call her ungrateful, but not before calling her perceptive.

A History Lesson

I thought I might try something new this week to see if you like it. There were two things from the episode I did a bit of research on and wanted to share with you:

Are you a Felix or an Oscar? Theyâ€™re talking about The Odd Couple, of course. Check out this link.

Barbizon Hotel For Women. The New York Times discusses its history here.

Do you think Donâ€™s makeover will last? It looks like something big is coming and I canâ€™t wait to see how Don deals with it.